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tasting notes: Beamishish

Recipe here. Twenty seven days later, on nitro through a stout faucet, and right on time:

Looks: Khaki cascade separating into black w/ ruby edges and a fine-textured pale tan head that sustains like skin on gravy.

Nose: Dark chocolate with a grainy, biscuity undertone, but there are flashes of hop and ester fruitiness.

Flavor: Immediate chocolate roastiness, natch; those undertones of bready-grainy malt come forth more as the beer warms (especially via foam traces in the mustache). An interesting combo of chocolate – specifically, Cadbury Dairy Milk bars – and fruity, herbal hops stronger here than in the aroma: a pretty nice if subtle complement to the roast malt. There’s a very soft dark fruit/toffee note in there too, which is in concert with the Beamish of my memory. It wraps up off-dry and bittersweet – specifically and particularly hop-bitter.

It is definitely not a to-spec dry Irish stout of the Guinness mold, where the roast malt quality breaks coffee-like and burnt to the point of acrid; this roast quality is milder and less aggressive, and the added elements of fruit/herbs/toffee further make it a little more of its own thing. Definitely Irish stout-y, but with a vestigial Anglo porter tail poking out of its breeches.

Texture: Creamy and dense, but without the viscosity or oily slickness of an iteration with flaked barley. The malted wheat is a subtle tweak, but it makes itself most felt here.

I think one of the things I appreciate most about the recipes you post on here is their simplicity. That’s not really my style in either cooking or brewing, as I tend more toward piling on many layers, I am somewhat envious of those who can pull off perfection through extreme simplicity.

How is the Patagonia dark crystal malt? I don’t have access to it locally (other than mail-order, I suppose). How does it compare to either a British Crystal 150 or Special B? I really like both of them. Also, what do you get from the Stout Malt as opposed to a Pale Ale malt?

Chocolate and fruit in the nose; flavor has a nice amount of roastiness balanced by malty sweetness with some esters. Some smoky/leathery tones. The carabrown gives just a hint of nutty graham cracker, and the black malt helps to give a little umph to the roasted barley.

Re: Patagonia extra dark crystal malt – it seems similar in terms of the raisiny/dark fruit character, but it is a little more austere and just a touch roasty … probably closer to the English C150.

Re: Stout malt – compared to standard UK pale malts, it’s paler and higher in enzymes (for converting a large fraction of unmalted barley, I assume); in the few times I’ve brewed with it so far, I’ve gotten a bit higher extract out of it as well.

Coincidentally I also hooked up my keg of stout this weekend, and drank some pint to celebrate the memory of St. Patrik. My stout has a more basic grist (70% Pale, 20% Barley flakes & 10 % Roasted Barley) and I only used EK.Goldings @ 90′. Used the same yeast (British Ale II).

My stout seems to have a little bit of a oak aroma, and has a real nice dry finish. I suspect this strain leaves room for the aroma hops. So next edition I will add some late editions to the mix. Do you detect any aroma or taste profile you would suspect the yeast brought to the party?

I do think there’s some low- to mid-level yeast character in mine – some apple/pear tree fruit-type esters, and more in the nose than the flavor … the late hops stood out more in the flavor than the yeast did in this batch. I didn’t pick out anything oaky, but searching for it sounds like an excellent excuse to pour a pint tonight.

Hey Mike – would share your process for prepping a keg for nitro? I feel like every time I put a beer on nitro I am fiddling with it for days or weeks, wasting many pints before it is finally dialed in.

Sure! I use a 0.5 micron diffusion stone inside the keg, on one end of about 20″ of bev tubing (for a 5 gallon keg) – the other end can either get snugged over the gas-in dip tube on the inside of the keg ceiling, or attached to a storebought or homemade carbonation lid (like this: http://morebeer.com/products/carbonating-keg-lid.html).

After fining the beer and racking into the keg, I usually force carb to a low level with CO2 (<1.0 vol), then hook up the beer gas mix to the keg (pushing through diffusion stone, to help the N get into solution), and dispense at a pretty high pressure (25-35 psi) through a stout faucet. If I'm in a rush, I have been known to skip force carbing with CO2 and go straight to dispensing with beer gas at a slightly higher pressure (…for the first day or two, then turn it down to that 25-35 psi range).

Michael Dawson…what does MCI stout malt taste like? Could it be used as a base malt in beers other than a stout? Is it clean like American two row or does it have more character like Maris Otter or other english pale malts? I would like to use it to cut MO or Golden Promise in a double IPA. If it imparts too much character I think I will use two row or pilsner malt.

Aaron Wirtz … based on my experience with it, I’d describe it as midway between a domestic 2-row pale and a UK pale malt from a traditional barley: not quite as purely grainy-neutral as a US base malt, not quite as rich or intense as, say Maris Otter, Optic, Golden Promise, etc. It can definitely be used in other styles (that high yield is nice!).